EX TENEBRIS CRESCIT FLOS
WRITING
Reacquainting Myself with a Great Hobby
September 2, 2005
I have always enjoyed writing, and, as shown by the number of articles on this
website, I can be rather prolific. Due to the nature of this website, the
writings here primarily consist of essays and biographical sketches, but my
interests run beyond these.
Lately, I have been working on my skill at fiction writing. In the past, I
have dabbled in this a bit, but I always seem to stop before I finish
anything. This year, I decided to get more serious about it, and I took
two creative writing classes to help spark my interest and improve my skill.
It worked. I added about 100 pages to a long work of fiction I have been
picking at for years, and I finished three short stories. For me, to actually
finish something before I lose interest is a major accomplishment.
Fiction is a good way to explore ideas. While I write my stories primarily
with the goal of creating an interesting story, elements of my personality
inevitably come out on the page. Through fiction, I have addressed the
struggle between logic and emotion, a search for identity, the process of
achieving emotional balance, and the state of modern corporate culture.
Exploring these ideas in fictional stories allows me to put a new twist on
them, and it allows me to approach them with more creativity than I might
in my essays here.
So where are my stories? Right now, they are sitting on my hard drive, and
they are in need of a bit of final editing. Most of them will not appear on
my website. Why? Because I might want to try to sell them one day. I have
been told that, with a bit of editing, one or two of my recent stories may be
good enough to sell to short-story-oriented magazines, and they invariably
want first publishing rights. But I hate marketing so much that I might never
bother to sell them! If I give up on marketing, they might start to appear
here. Otherwise, if I actually sell one, I will post a blurb about it here.
Hopefully, my interest in writing will continue; it is a productive use of
leisure time, as opposed to sitting in front of the TV. My mind needs
constant exercise, and it will atrophy if I let it sit unused. Writing is
one of the best ways to get my rusty brain circuits running again.
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Heather Harrison. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to accredited
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